“Jonathan Bangs, colloquially known as Peewee, is the reputed owner.”
“And what has that to do with Abner Fownes?”
“That,” he said, “is a matter which has aroused my curiosity for some time.”
CHAPTER V
CARMEL was not long in discovering Gibeon’s attitude toward advertising. The local merchants regarded it much as they did taxes, the dull season, so called (for in Gibeon’s business world there were only two seasons, the dull and the busy) and inventory sales. All were inevitable, in the course of nature, and things which always had and always would happen. One advertised, not with enthusiasm and in expectancy of results, but because men in business did advertise. Smith Brothers’ grocery bore reluctantly the expense of a four-inch double-column display which was as unchanging as the laws of the Medes and Persians. It stated, year in and year out, that Smith Brothers were the headquarters for staple and fancy groceries. The advertisement was as much a part of their business as the counter. The Busy Big Store was more energetic; its copy was changed every year on the 1st of January. Seven years before, Miss Gammidge let it be known through the columns of the Free Press that she was willing to sell to the public millinery and fancy goods, and that statement appeared every week thereafter without change of punctuation mark. The idea that one attracted business by means of advertising was one which had not penetrated Gibeon, advertising was a business rite, just as singing the Doxology was an indispensable item in the service of the local Presbyterian church. It was done, as cheaply and inconspicuously as possible, and there was an end of it.
As for subscribers, they were hereditary. Just as red hair ran in certain families, subscribing to the paper ran in others. It is doubtful if anybody took in the paper because he wanted it; but it was tradition for some to have the Free Press, and therefore they subscribed. It was useful for shelf covering. Red hair is the exception rather than the rule; so were subscribing families.
Carmel pondered deeply over these facts. If, she said to herself, all the merchants advertised as they should advertise, and if all the inhabitants who should subscribe did subscribe, then the Free Press could be made a satisfactorily profitable enterprise. How might these desirable results be obtained? She was certain subscribers might be gotten by making the paper so interesting that nobody could endure to wait and borrow his neighbor’s copy; but how to induce merchants to advertise she had not the remotest idea.
There was the bazaar, for instance, which did not advertise at all; the bank did not advertise; the two photographers did not advertise; the bakery did not advertise. She discussed the matter with Tubal and Simmy, who were not of the least assistance, though very eager. She did not discuss it with Prof. Evan Bartholomew Pell because that member of the staff was engaged in writing a snappy, heart-gripping article on the subject of “Myths and Fables Common to Peoples of Aryan Derivation.” It was his idea of up-to-date journalism, and because Carmel could think of nothing else to set him to work at, she permitted him to continue.
“Advertising pays,” she said to Tubal. “How can I prove it to these people?”
“Gawd knows, Lady. Jest go tell ’em. Mebby they’ll believe you.”